Sometimes yes, HSTS sites would be harder to crack.
However, many people still manually enter website urls (citibank.com) which redirects to https. If the DNS points citibank.com to a fake citibank phishing site, they simply wouldn't redirect to an https site at all.
Very savvy customers may notice that they aren't connected vis https; most people wouldn't.
I don't think so, because secure sites will use SSL, and your browser does certificate verification.